“MINE!” your dog seems to say.
Some dogs feel the need to secure what to them are valuable things. This resource guarding behavior is how they stand between these things and perceived or real threats, sometimes including you.
When you think about it, you realize that we do the same thing. We lock our house doors and our cars. We install alarms on our belongings and microchip our pets. Elaborate security measures safeguard important information and items.
Resource guarding in dogs involves body language, vocalizations, and even aggressive behavior acting like big, red stop signs.
Let’s talk about what resource guarding in dogs is and what it looks like.
What is Resource Guarding in Dogs?
We see this behavior a lot among our dogs. For example, if anyone gets near one dog when their head is in the food bowl, they growl a warning as if to say, “Hey! You’re near my stuff! This is my highly valued item, and you’re not allowed to touch it!”
Generally, if you approach or touch a resource guarding dog or try to take the guarded item away, you may be subject to a wide range of responses, from a mild warning to an aggressive bite.
What Resources Do Dogs Guard?
A dog may guard anything they consider valuable — food, toys, their bed, a blanket, or your property (their territory). The guarded object may be several feet away from them, even if they don’t seem to be focused on it at all … until someone tries to take it. The dog may move the imperiled item out of the way or escalate to more aggressive behavior.
When Resource Guarding Involves People
Recently, a couple’s six-year-old German Shepherd started guarding the wife whenever the husband tried to hug her. They recently rescued him from a shelter, and the dog was testing their boundaries. The couple needed to address this right away before it escalated.
Resource guarding is about dogs’ pack drive and the pecking order within. If the dog perceives you as one of their resources instead of their pack leader, they will guard you against other people, dogs, anyone. Such behavior can cause serious problems, as the dog’s perception of threat is misplaced and aimed at your friends, children, relatives, and anyone who approaches you.
Food Aggression
Most people know not to touch a dog that’s eating unless they are familiar enough with that dog to know it’s safe to do so. Some dogs are food aggressive; they resource guard food — their own or yours.
A food guarding dog may gulp their food quickly to keep intruders from getting a chance at it. Their bodies are stiff and tense. If you have not established yourself as pack leader and controller of all food, that resource guarding behavior may be directed at you.
Early Resource Guarding
When the litter is large, puppies quickly learn that they have to compete for food, especially when fed from one large container. The most food aggressive puppies are rewarded for their behavior. The reward is more food, something that will have to be unlearned when you bring them home.
Resource Guarding between Dogs
This type of resource guarding can be challenging to manage. It’s likely that multiple dogs, even in the same household, covet the same valuables. Resource guarding is one dog telling the others that this item is theirs and to leave it alone. It’s not much different from a couple of toddlers squabbling over a favorite toy.
Is the Resource Guarding Behavior Instinctual?
Yes, it is quite normal behavior for a dog. The wolves and feral dogs from which they descended rely on resource guarding for survival. Other animals are as well ready and willing to steal food and other necessary resources at the first opportunity.
With any wild animals, there’s always a pecking order around food. So if a younger wolf, for example, comes over before their turn, they will be chased off. In domestic dogs, resource guarding behavior is especially prominent in herding and hunting breeds. You need proper pack structure with you as the clear pack leader.
What are the Most Obvious Signs of Resource Guarding in Dogs?
Signs of resource guarding in dogs range from mild to severe and may escalate if their warnings aren’t working. It may be just that little rumble, but there may be more threatening behaviors, such as the body tensing, hovering over the item, staring that shows the white of the eyes, baring teeth, and growling. In the worst cases, a dog will bite.
Can Resource Guarding Turn into Aggressive Behavior?
Resource guarding, also called possessive aggression, can turn into a truly disturbing behavior in certain circumstances.
In shelters, dogs who show food aggression are often ineligible for adoption because of the potential risk to new owners’ safety, which is why, unfortunately, they’re sometimes euthanized.
You need to be able to take an item away from your dog. They often pick up dangerous things, a food item that will sicken them, or simply an item that is not for them. But if your dog’s resource guarding behavior has become aggressive, taking something out of their mouth gets complicated when they are threatening to bite.
This behavior is especially dangerous for small children. They don’t understand the danger and will try to take a toy from the dog without recognizing warning signs. Their size puts their faces easily within reach of an aggressive dog.
In some good news, one study of over 3,000 dogs’ resource guarding showed that 41% of dogs responded vocally to a perceived threat from people. Bites occurred in only 15% of these cases, and few caused any injury.
How to Fix Resource Guarding in Dogs
In Part 2 of this resource guarding series, we will look into what you can do to manage and eliminate this behavior as quickly as possible. It all comes down to establishing yourself as the pack leader, possessor, and controller of all the resources. What’s the right way to go about this? It depends on how severe the behavior is.
As always, we at K9 Basics are here to help you if you are having trouble dealing with the problem on your own. Contact us. We will get to the core of the problem and empower you to get the best results. In the meantime, make sure to check out our blog for more information on dog training!